Honda Accord is a sub-brand of Honda Group, which performs remarkably in the sedan market recently. This report is to provide a new thorough marketing strategy which aligns with the corporate goal of innovation and high technology of Honda Accord, and pursues a driving safety concept, to achieve a new flourish in the Australian sedan market. This is done through its past marketing performance and the crossing contrast with its major competitors’, supported by multiple sides of references.

The report finds that Accord captures advantages in technology and innovation, which provides superior safety condition at a similar price among competitors. It has a quite broad consumer base, among which the strategy is target to the Family Segment, aging from 30 to 50 years old of middle and rich class, who attach more importance on driving safety. This report mainly focuses on Accord’s superior safety control technology, offering a marketing strategy that reinforces the brand’s safety impression. To better diffuse its marketing influence, the report recommends Accord to facilitate with mixed marketing communication campaigns, which used to be less impressive than its competitors’, to enhance its safe-driving image among consumers in addition to sole focus on price.

Introduction

The report is provided for Honda Accord Marketing Managers who would like to adopt a creative and comprehensive marketing strategy to strengthen pleasant and easy-to-drive profile among consumers and thus to seize larger sedan market share. The report will first explore the target segment of Honda Accord, focusing on the demographics characteristics of the family segment that comprises middle and high class consumers. To provide a better understanding, the brand positioning will be discussed. Then it will cover the marketing mix recommendations with academic and business references. Eventually, the social responsibilities Accord faces and an overall conclusion will be presented.

The information is mainly collected through Honda’s official websites and other business resources from professionals. The major hindrance of this report is that some of the information may not be up to date, and can be published for every user online that was recorded for different purposes.

Section1 - Target Segment

The pleasant and convenient driving marketing strategy mainly aims at the Family Segment of Honda Accord’s market segmentation profile ( Appendix A), based on the demographic characteristics such as age, income, gender, ethnic background, lifecycles and etc, which largely influences consumers’ buying behaviors and preference (Lovelock and Wirtz, 2011). The Family Segment ages from middle age to older that covers from the 30s to 50s, usually with children, belonging to the middle and rich class in the society. The segment is considered the most attractive segment for mainly three reasons:

First, the Family Segment (30 to 50 years old) is the majority making up the consumer consumption power, which accounts for nearly 60.6% of total (Notes in Table 1). It means more sales and more profitability than the other two segments “Sports” and “Recreational Vehicle”.

Second, this segment relies heavily on local dealership and exclusive agencies, which are what Honda Acccord put an effort to build these years. The sub-brand has established its first national distribution center in Melbourne since the late 1970’s and owned powerful motor retail experience and professional knowledge in supply chain management (Henderson Logistics, 2016).

Third, this segment can be easily accessed via Honda Accord’s integrated marketing communication tools, which include ads on televisions, Internet platforms, outdoor media and etc, sales promotion, sponsorship on cultural events as well as other public relations activities.

Section 2 – Brand Positioning

Honda has been acknowledged as one of the best quality and cost efficient car brands in the auto market (Jurevicius, 2013). Honda Accord is the best seller of Honda’s sub-brands that emphasizes the “great value for money” principle (Daily News, 2012). Brand Honda is current in the middle-upper part of first quadrant in the positioning map in many Australian consumers (Figure 1), evidenced by the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) overall safety ratings in 2016 and newest price releases (ANACP, 2016) (Table 1 & Appendix B).

Honda Accord is now in a favorable position among its major competitors Mazda 6 and KIA Optima, with prices ranking in the middle and safety rating ranking as the highest (Figure 1 & Table 1). According to ANACP (2016), Accord has been rated with a Five-Star with 35. 79 out of 37 scores since 2014, with a 14.79 out of 16 score in “frontal offset” feature. It also has good “whiplash protection” and acceptable “pedestrian protection” (Appendix B). In contrast, KIA Optima obtained a 35.58 with 14.58 in “frontal offset” feature. With a lower price ($ 1261 less) and higher safety figure, Accord takes an absolute advantage over KIA Optima. As for another competitor Mazda 6, which requires $ 831 less than Accord, gaining a lower score of 35.44 with two important features “whiplash protection” and “pedestrian protection” not assessed, still leaving consumers safety concerns.

Besides, Accord can capture more attention of its target segment by protruding its safety features, which make it superior to Mazda 6 and KIQ Optima. The security attributes like speed and distance sensors, “Changing the Lane Game[1]” for blind sports, highly protective body material and etc (Honda Accord Official Site, 2016) are highly commended by the Family Segment, which is made up of middle to older aging customers, who usually have children. Hence the Unique Selling Position (USP) of Accord is that it’s one of the three family sedan options, and has greater level of safety than the other two. Based on the USP, the brand positioning statement is:

To consumers who concern about safety features, our Accord is the best choice among the market with highest safety technology and best value for price.

Figure 1. Positioning Map – Safety vs. Price

Figure 2. Positioning Map – High-tech vs. Safety

Figure 1 relates to the position statement that Accord has better safety value for price, and Figure 2 relates to the technology level and safety level of Accord and its strategic competitors.

Table 1. Product comparison of Honda Accord, Mazda 6 and KIA Optima

ProductOur Brand and Sub-BrandStrategic Group Competitor 1Strategic Group Competitor 2

ProductHonda AccordMazda 6Kia Optima

PlaceSales from dealerships and also online sales.Sales from dealerships and also online sales.Sales from dealerships and also online sales.

Price $37,123$36,292$38,384

PromotionEnd of financial year sales

Test drives

Test drive

Television advertising

Online advertisingTest drive

Television advertising

Online advertising

Safety Ratings35.7935.4435.58

Data was current as of 3/5/16

Sources: Honda.com.au, Mazda.com.au, KIA.com.au, ANCAP.com.au.

Section 3 –Marketing Mix Recommendations

3.1Product

The Honda Accord is in the maturity phase of the product life cycle, which signifies high importance of its brand image, and in this level, the brand image lies in the strong safety features. According to the three levels of conceptualization, Figure 3 is developed for recommending the product design for Honda’s new product in the Accord series. The core product is bought by the problem solving benefit (Lamb et al, 2013, p101), and for cars, it is to take people to a distant place conveniently.

The third level is the augmented product, in which additional functions are added to increase the product value (Lamb et al, 2013, p102). At this level, we recommend Accord to use automatic pressure-sensing doors, which deals in special environment, for example, facing high water pressure that impedes the open of doors. Besides, we recommend Accord to adopt a satellite-related GPS locator, which can send SOS signal to the police stations within 300-mile-radius circle with an emergency button pushed. These features support the brand positioning of high-tech and superior safe product.

Figure 3. Three levels of conceptualization

Augmented Product

Actual Product

Sedan car

3.2Place

We recommend Accord to adopt the selective intensity distribution strategy, as Accord shall collaborate with local dealers with high-tech and reliable image, to encore its brand positioning and make consumers feel guaranteed to buy.

To distribute, the brand should be sold in 4S stores, exclusive dealers (intermediaries), and online. The physical stores can provide test drives for consumers, with professional coaches and special lanes for the tests. For this consideration, we propose to lay the physical stores at the edge of big cities, for the convenience and safety to test, which is consistent with our brand positioning of security.

For online channels, we recommend Accord to establish collaboration with reliable local distribution and logistics centers, for example, the Henderson Logistics, which has excellent reputation on fast and safety delivery, and this will quite match the positioning of safety for Accord.

3.3Promotion

To promote, we recommend Accord to put the most focus on Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) mix, as the product is now in the maturity period, which relies heavily on brand image. A good combination of promotion tools can further increase its market exposure and thus to increase sales (Saylor Organization, p2).

To align with its brand positioning, we recommend Accord to spread its marketing influence through mass media such as televisions, radios, and Internet (websites and social media network), where has large amount of consumers of Family Segment, who spend long time in these media. Especially, it should put much focus on online ads, mainly via social network service such as Facebook and You Tube, and could establish its private homepage to upload videos and pictures. Out-of-Home (OOH) media such as billboards on highways and in commercial districts is also a good choice to attract families whether when they go out for trips or hang in downtown.

Also, we recommend direct sales promotions in physical stores, where personal sales guides can direct consumers with detail information, providing a thorough and brief to the point product presentation. Besides, sponsorships on cultural activities (such as family union activities) can also attract consumers who have a family base and emphasize safety for prices. It can show its safety and economic features in these activities, which aligns with the security and best price brand positioning.

3.4Price

For pricing, we recommend Accord to Status Quo strategy in the fierce competition with competitors, for a long-term survival in the Australian market. Since that the family sedan cars are in the maturity period in Product Life Cycle, the skimming strategy and penetration strategy are no longer adapted. In addition, the Status Qua strategy encores well with the current brand positioning, which is to provide safer product under a similar price compared with competitors. To achieve this strategy, the Accord shall lower its prices a little bit so as to keep a slight higher than the lowest price but lower than the average level.

Section 4 – Conclusion, Ethics and Social Responsibility

The product will flourish through its innovative and high-tech safety control features, meeting the high demand of security driving of the target segment.

Several marketing tools will be combined to facilitate the brand positioning to spread a “best value for price” image effectively with a focus on superior safety features and lower prices.

The distribution channels will emphasize a selective intensive strategy, with reliable physical stores (intermediaries/ exclusive dealership/subsidiaries) that provide guides and test drives so that consumers can reach products via a smooth and safe distribution.

Compared to its competitors’ prices, Accord will adopt a Status Quo strategy which provides products with better safety features at very similar prices. The pricing strategy will attract its target Family Segment which is sensitive to both price and safety.

Embracing the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), the marketing strategy is socially and ethically responsible, which adopts family concept towards gender indifference for advertisements. The model also claims for environmental-friendly with online advisements replacing printing ads.

The marketing strategy will be accessed via a Triple Bottom Line Reporting, so that its social, ethical and environmental performance will be examined annually. Eventually, we recommend for a Compliance Program to obey which ensures the above performance and legal responsibilities all meet the standards.

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Appendix A. Honda Accord Market Segmentation

AgeLife-cycleIncomeGenderEthnic Group

SportsYoung, from 18 to 25 years oldSingleAbove the average to richMale/FemaleNo restriction

FamilyMiddle age to older, from the 31 to 50 years oldMarried with childrenMiddle class to richMale/FemaleNo restriction

Recreational vehicle

（RV）Young to middle age, from 26 to 30 years oldMarried without or with children can both buy it; Target to couples who love travel RichMale/FemaleNo restriction